1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to systems and methods for displaying movies, advertising, and alternative content, and, more particularly, to software, systems and methods for automating digital projection equipment by extending and augmenting existing film projection systems.
2. Relevant Background
Film-based entertainment such as movies, live events combined with film features, and the like remain an important vehicle for entertainment and education throughout the world. The ambiance of a theatre is what continues to draw audiences even though many other venues for watching movies exist. The ambience created by lighting, sound, seating, picture quality, and other factors contribute to a unique entertainment environment that continues to be preferred by audiences. As a result, there exists a significant installed base of theatres in the United States and throughout the world that include equipment and facilities for displaying film-based material. A typical theatre comprises one or more auditoriums where each auditorium includes a projection, sound, and auditorium devices that control various activities during a presentation. A projection room or booth houses projectors, sound equipment, controllers, and the like used to control auditorium lighting, sound, and other functions involved in presenting film-based content to an audience. Traditionally, the projection booth is staffed by a projectionist who is responsible for loading film reels onto the projector, adjusting the optical and audio properties within the auditorium, and turning the projectors on and off at appropriate times.
Manual performance of projectionist functions has some advantages in that certain activities such as adjusting sound and light levels benefit from the presence of a skilled projectionist. However, other functions such as turning projectors on and off or synchronizing the projection with other events in the auditorium may be improved by automation. As events become more complex and involve more complex synchronization of activities, the need for automation within the projection booth has increased. Moreover, automations allow a single projectionist to staff multiple auditoriums, thereby reducing cost of presenting an event.
There have been significant efforts to automate activities within the projection booth. These automations are typically designed for film-based content in that they interface to film projectors. For example, an automation controller may sense cues embedded in a conventional film and adjust picture or sound format or turn projection equipment on and off. Such controllers can be used to automate the activities involved in switching from one active projector to another as may be performed when switching between a various segments of and event such as preshow features, trailers, advertisements and a feature presentation.
Because these automation controllers are designed for film-based content, they have limited ability to assist in the automation of alternative projection equipment. For example, digital projection equipment is a rapidly evolving alternative to film-based equipment. Digital projection equipment enables using digital content that can be selected for presentation and loaded into projection equipment moments before the actual presentation. Digital content can be revised and updated much more efficiently than film-based content. As a result, digital projection equipment offers significant advantages for theatre owners.
Current projection rooms are limited in that they use a switched outlet to turn the projector on/off. A switched outlet, which turns power on and off rapidly, is adequate for a film-type projector, but causes significant aging of digital projector components such as bulbs. As digital projector bulbs are expensive, excessive wear can be a significant deterrent to using digital equipment. Commonly, a digital projector requires a soft turn on and/or turn off to allow the bulb to heat and cool more gradually. For example, a bulb may be turned off while the fan continues to operate. A switched outlet cannot be used for this purpose because it would remove power from the bulb and fan at the same time. However, because the switched outlet is the only universally available method for controlling the projection equipment, it has been difficult to use the existing automation systems with expensive digital projection equipment.
In a typical application, a switched outlet is provided to control the changeover from a 35 mm slide show presenting pre-show features to a film projector used to present the movie. Using the switched outlet, a film projector can be turned on and the slide projector turned off at the same time to provide an immediate transition. However, when a digital projector is used instead of a slide projector, the switched outlet cannot be used. Instead, a common solution is to implement a network interface to the digital projector which exposes the soft turn-off feature of the projector itself. A command can be sent over the network to initiate the soft turn on/off. This solution requires software to generate the network commands and requires that the on/off command be synchronized with other events, such as activation of the film projector. Hence, existing solutions are complex and cannot take advantage of the switched outlet interface.
In general, digital projectors are designed for network-based control. A digital projector control system typically involves processes executing on a network-attached computer that issues commands to the digital projector over a network connection using network protocols. In contrast, existing film-based control systems directly couple to the film-based projector and respond to cue information encoded on the film to implement various theatre functions. It is desirable to have both control systems available and operating in a synchronized fashion, however, existing film-based control systems do not provide interfaces to digital projectors or to the digital projector control systems. Interfacing these two separate control systems is possible, but adds to the complexity and cost of a system. Accordingly, a need exists for a cost-effective system and methodology for coordinating the operation of these two otherwise independent control systems.
In addition to changes in digital projection, there are an increasing variety of audio formats and equipment for presenting audio content. A typical theatre auditorium has an installed sound system that may include a cinema audio processor for decoding and filtering various encoded signals, as well as amplifiers, speaker systems and the like for presenting the audio content.
Conventional sound-on-film systems for 35 mm theatre-class projection systems use optical encoding and generate an audio signal from the projector. This system is inexpensive and standardized, so that almost every theatre projection setup in the world is capable of reproducing it. Accordingly, many sound systems are specifically designed to receive audio signals from a projector, but are not equipped to receive audio information from alternative sources such as computers, DVD players, CD players, and the like. One solution to this problem has been to install a media adapter such as a DMA™-8 adapter produced by Dolby Laboratories, Inc. This equipment allows switching various input sources to drive a multi-channel output to a sound system. However, this type of switching equipment is relatively expensive, and provides more features than may be necessary in many applications. Accordingly, a need exists for a simple yet robust and functional system and method for interfacing theatre sound systems and audio processors with alternative audio sources.
In view of the above, there is an acute need for a new, flexible yet easy to configure projection automation system that will overcome the above shortcomings of current theatre equipment and practices.